Back in the days when the first "Top Gun" movie came out, if I had gotten a dollar for every overly aggressive litigation attorney (this was in Texas in those days, where some old school attorney occasionally engaged in fisticuffs in the halls of the courthouse) who told me that he "could have been like those guys," it would have made for a nice nest egg.
Well, I hate to disappoint you, but real life often varies from the movies. Professional Navy fighter pilots are smart, tough and a lot of them look like the guy or gal who offers to sell you insurance. Most of them are probably under 6 feet tall, because their offices aren't all that big. Most are in reasonable shape. And all of them work really, really hard to master their job. That being said, a select few do get to go to Fallon, Nevada - in the high desert about an hour from Reno sitting on the "Loneliest Road in America" - to receive training that will allow them to go back to their squadrons to train other pilots in tactics and things. Another select few will take the training and remain at Fallon to instruct while flying and learning. Very much "train the trainer."
All fighter pilots want to be the best, but they also want to be surrounded by other pilots who also want to be the best. And, as you will see, the training is not just for pilots.
Here's a slightly dated documentary about the Fighter Weapons School:
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